We stopped at USUE Prehistoric Museum for postcards and to browse the gift shop. To our surprise, they had no dinosaur cards, but we got some postcards of the San Rafael Swell and other attractions from the area to send to friends. Cindy and Mark went to Walmart for gas, which was 25 cents per gallon cheaper than everywhere else. We planned to meet at the Golden Spike National Historic Monument in Promontory UT.
We drove the familiar Route 6 over the Wasatch Range to Spanish Fork, Utah. It is a very beautiful drive through Utah’s “Castle Country” with the sheer rock canyons bordering US 6 through the mountains. We stopped before we picked up I-15, and Mary drove the busy 6 lane highway (each way) until north of Salt Lake City. Fortunately, the traffic wasn’t as bad at this time of day as it is during rush hours. We left I-15 near Corinne, UT, taking US 83 west to the Golden Spike National Historic Monument.
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| The Jupiter at Promontory Summit |
We arrived at Promontory Summit, Utah, shortly before 1:00 PM. Our Interagency Senior Annual National Park Pass got us into the park at no fee. A ranger program was just beginning as we arrived. Her program was excellent, telling the history of the site and the joining of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads as the “Wedding of the Rails.” Prior to the opening of the transcontinental railroad, travel from the Missouri River to California by wagon took six months. In addition, the trip was very dangerous; many travelers died along the way.
The ranger dispelled a lot of the stories that we learned in school about the event and told of problems that arose during the last days of the project in 1869. We learned that there were actually four commemorative spikes. A golden spike from California, later given to Leland Stanford Museum; a silver spike was given by the state of Nevada. The Arizona Territory provided an iron spike plated with gold and silver, and the San Francisco New Letter brought a second golden spike. A laurelwood crosstie was laid for the special spikes with holes predrilled to accept the ceremonial spikes whose metal would be too soft to drive. Immediately following the ceremony, the tie and spikes were removed and replaced with a pine tie and iron spikes. A telegraph wire was attached to the final spike to the nation could hear the spike being driven. The whereabouts of two of the four ceremonial spikes are unknown today.
Another story that we found interesting regards the flag flying over the park which had only twenty stars despite the fact that the United States had thirty-seven states in 1869. It seems that no one remembered to bring a flag to the 1869 ceremony. When the organizers realized the omission, they found that a soldier in attendance had a 1818 flag in his personal baggage that was a family memento. It was flown over the ceremony.
A replica of the Jupiter (Central Pacific Railroad) was on display and drove up and down the track for a short distance for onlookers. On weekends, both the Jupiter and No. 119 (Union Pacific Railroad) are on the rails at the park.
We walked around the exhibits in the visitor center and bought more postcards to send to the grandkids. Mary got a stamp in her National Park Passport book.
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| ATK Rocket Garden |
To get to Twin Falls, Idaho, we decided to drive on UT-83 west to avoid backtracking to I-15. Shortly after getting on Route 83 north, we happened upon the Northrop Grumman testing facilities and the ATK Rocket Garden (Autoliv Thiokol) that displayed rocket engines and gave information about each. For many years Morton-Thiokol made rocket boosters for the space shuttle. They became known following the 1986 Challenger disaster. It is believed that failure of O-rings produced by Morton-Thiokol were responsible for the explosion. The company is also known for producing Patriot and Minuteman missiles and other rockets for the military and space industry. We talked to an employee who was working in the gardens near the rocket displays. He told us about the plants and how they did in the growing conditions of northern Utah.
After leaving we had a car lunch of peanut butter, Ritz crackers, Tillamook cheese and snacks as we drove through the flat ranch land north of Salt Lake City. We picked up I-84 near Blue Creek, Utah, and made the short drive to Idaho, stopping at the second Idaho rest stop for a quick stretch break.
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| The Snake River from Shoshone Falls |
Cindy and Mark were ahead of us. Although we had planned to go to Thousand Springs, Idaho, it had been a long day, and we were ready for a stop. We got gas at Jerome, right across from the Day’s Inn where we were spending the night.
After checking into the hotel, we jumped in the truck with Mark and Cindy and went to Twin Falls where we visited the Shoshone Falls State Park overlook. The Interagency Senior Annual National Park Pass got us in free. The park was beautiful with lots of areas for picnicking, hiking, swimming and boating. This stretch of the Snake River is known as “The Niagara of the West” for the waterfalls that can reach over 20,000 cubic feet per second. However, when we visited some water was coming over the falls, but most went through the adjacent hydroelectric plant. After leaving the falls, we drove the short distance to Dierkes Lake, a former lava quarry forming a small lake with a very nice swimming area.
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| Shoshone Falls |
We stopped at the Twin Falls Costco for dinner splitting a couple of pizzas and chicken Caesar salads, all of which were very tasty. We made a quick stop at Walmart for a few things before returning to the Jerome Days Inn.
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